... and while they are probably justly regarded as the inventors of "corporate rock" it was an excellent gig.
I had expected somewhat soulless perfection and what I got was excellence with some real grit. Charmingly, someone even played the wrong chord for a couple of seconds early in the set and unsettled the others before he noticed his mistake, so it wasn't all from tape! The harmony vocals are still unearthly perfect, but judging from their individual lead vocals Frey, Henley, Schmitt and Walsh (all attired for the occasion in black suits, black ties and white shirts)
are all great singers and of course they have been doing it for decades. I didn't for even one moment have the feeling they might be using tapes.
Never having seen the Eagles before, I did not know how much Frey plays the master of the ceremonies and jokes ("a song from way back, when the Dead Sea was only just sick ..."), nor that Henley still plays as much drums live as he did yesterday (I had envisaged him playing more guitar). Tracks sung by Schmitt and Walsh are featured prominently, I'd say that if Frey and Henley sing each about 30% of the set, the remaining 40% is shared equally between Schmitt and Walsh. And somehow it all gels, Henley's overly earnest "I want to change the world for the better, but it is all going downhill, I'm a real depressive multi-millionaire", Frey's smooth crooning which is sometimes on the verge of a Las Vegas act (I love his voice and material though, I even listen to his solo albums), Schmitt's pitch-perfect singing (Frey: "He sings up high and plays down low.") located somewhere between ethereal and downright whimpy (guy could easily get a job with the Bee Gees) and Walsh's untutored rawness plus associated clowning (audience webcam on baseball hat, quips like "for those of you young enough, I apologize how your parents played this song to death ...").
Tickets were - the Eagles really invented expensive ticket pricing - expensive, but they did play for more than 2 1/2 hours (intermission taken into account).
They have three keyboarders, an additional guitarist (Stu Smith who probably plays more solos than Walsh as he does all the Don Felder work plus is Henley's sparring partner in writing, also co-produced the last album), another drummer/percussionist, a violinist plus a four man horn section (some of the horn arrangements reaching Blood, Sweat & Tears type intricacy, especially on the James Gang/Walsh solo chestnuts). I probably missed a couple of other sidemen. Sound was crystal-clear (four acoustic guitars or four electric guitars strumming on stage, yet you can pick out at least three of them at any given time), but with enough volume balls to not let you forget you were at a rock concert (and the last quarter of the concert was decidedly rockish, with duelling guitars and drums).
Instrumentally, Walsh is a great gutsy player (though Stu Smith probably has superior technique), his reputation as a slide player is deserved. I've always liked Henley's drumming/groove and was able to witness for the first time yesterday how good a rhythm guitarist Frey is (with lots of clever embellishments), he took just one lead solo during the concert and you could tell that there are other things he's more comfortable with. Schmitt is competent as a bass player (even a little solo at the end of Henley's masterpiece "Long Road out of Eden"), but I will forever prefer Randy Meisner's more upfront playing (Meisner's Take it to the Limit was sung by Frey well, but no one, not even Henley or Schmitt, dared to do those really ultra-high parts Meisner did on the studio version of the last chorus).
Pleasantly, they did not wallow only in the glory of their classics (no Long Run, Tequila Sunrise or Already Gone though), but also played five or six tracks from their recent album.
And finally it was a concert for guitar and bass enthusiasts as all of them would switch guitars (mostly Gibsons and PRS) from song to song (Schmitt playing mostly 5 and 4 string Jazz Basses) with Frey even playing a new Gibson Moderne on one song and Walsh doing some great slide work on a Ron Wood-type mirrored Duesenberg.
Uwe
